The 2011 PASS SQLRally is just about one month away and it's high time I highlighted some of the important things you'll be hearing about in my precon seminar Leadership and Team Management Skills for the IT Professional. Just to set the context, many of us IT people got to our lofty career positions because of our keen use of technology. It takes a lot of smarts to get where we've gotten, but they are a very specific set of smarts that can't always be used in every business setting. And, since so many of us have topped out in our potential salary as long as we stay in the trenches and the … [Read more...]
Funny Things You’ll Hear at the “Leadership for IT Professionals” at the 2011 SQLRally
Filed Under: Conferences, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, Humor, Management, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development, SQLPASS, Training
Innovation and Invention: Whose Method Is Best?
There are a lot of reasons why I love The Economist magazine and pay over $100 per year for a subscription. First of all, it summarizes all of its news articles, big and small, in the first 4-5 pages of the magazine. Don't have time to read the entire issue? No problem, how does 20 minutes work for you? Second, it reports news from around the world as if the rest of the world actually matters, whereas every American news magazine I read looks at the rest of the world as an afterthought. You probably know me well enough to know that I travel internationally at least a couple times each … [Read more...]
Filed Under: On-Line Resources, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Creativity, Innovation, Professional Development
Come Aboard. We’re Expecting You
Those of us over a certain age (read - old as dirt) can remember the theme songs to certain TV shows better than we can the National Anthem. Try these lines out and see if you don't immediately remember the tune that goes along with them: Come and knock on our door | We've been waiting for you ... Makin' your way in the world today | Takes everything you've got ... Just some good ol' boys | Never meaning no harm ... Thank you for being a friend | Travel down the road and back again ... So when I got the news that my employer, Quest Software, wanted to send one of the team to an … [Read more...]
Filed Under: IO, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, Professional Development, SQL Server 2008 R2, Training
Totally Awesome and Totally Free Training SQL Server Training
One of the things that I enjoy about working for Quest Software is that we give back copiously to the community. From activities and offerings like SQLServerPedia, to our free posters mailed anywhere in North America (and don't forget the free hi-res PDFs for the rest of the world), Don't forget that free DVDs of our virtual conferences featuring me, along with Buck Woody (blog | twitter) and Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) will be mailed anywhere in North America free of charge, now available at this link. Enjoy! -Kevin Twitter at kekline More content at http://KevinEKline.com … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Challenges, On-Line Resources, Presentations, Professional Development, Tips & Tricks, Video Tagged With: Best Practices, DBA, Developer, Professional Development, Training
Cloud Evolving, SQL Server Responding
Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) and I did an interview with TechTarget’s Brendan Cournoyer at last summer's Tech-Ed, which as turned into a podcast titled “Cloud efforts advance, SQL Server evolves.” The podcast covers all the major trends at the conference (like BI), virtualization features in Quest’s products (like Spotlight), Brent’s new book and MCM certification, and more. Here’s a link to hear it, appearing on 6/11/10: http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/podcast/Cloud-efforts-advance-SQL-Server-evolves … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Cloud, Databases, Interviews, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Azure, Career, cloud computing, DBA, Professional Development, SQL Server 2008 R2, Writing
Education and Career Resources from Microsoft and the Community
Sometimes I'm timely in getting the news out on useful resources. And, other times, I'm a bit slower on the draw. As I told friends back at New Year's Day, "As an official member of the Procrastinators Club, welcome to 2008!" On the other hand, it's always good to remind folks of great resources that are still available and on the shelf. Why? Well, the Internet hits us with such a deluge of constantly new material, that we often forget about the old(ish) stuff that's still really useful. Quest vConference for SQL Server One of the most popular teaching sessions I ever engaged … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Databases, On-Line Resources, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Tips & Tricks, Video Tagged With: Career, DBA, Developer, Professional Development, Quest Software, Training, Women in Technology
Efficiency and Effectiveness at Work [Video]
In this vblog entry on www.SQLServerPedia.com shows SQL Server expert Kevin Kline discussing his views on how to be both efficient and effective in your day to day and career - aimed at the SQL Server professional, but good for anyone. Originally posted August 08, 2008. … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Video Tagged With: Career, Management, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development, Video
Plays Well With Others – Can Integrity Be Learned?
In a past post , I talked about the work of Dr. William Cohen, a renowned expert on leadership. In Dr. Cohen’s work, he describes eight frequently recurring characteristics among excellent leaders, one of which is “absolute integrity”. However, this characteristic got pushback from several readers. The general thread seemed to be “You either have integrity or you don’t. It’s not something that can be learned”. So let’s take a step back and examine the idea of whether integrity can be learned. I think that some of the pushback that I got about learning integrity comes from people who … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Opinion, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Professional Development
Plays Well With Others – So You’re the Boss Now…
I’m frequently asked the following paraphrased question: I’d been happily plugging away in my job as a {DBA/Dev/Terminator/Warp Drive Engineer} for several years, when I applied for the manager position. I was surprised and thrilled when I got the job! But now that I’ve been in the job for a while, I find that no one on the team is thrilled with me. I know that I made a lot of changes. But they were all for the good of the team. What should I do to reconnect with my team and rebuild my friendships? A common theme in this series, “Plays Well With Others”, is that the skills … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Ethics, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Management, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development
Video: Microsoft Master Certification Program
On this vblog entry on www.sqlserverpedia.com I describe and discuss the Microsfot MCP (Master Certification Program). I hope this helps anyone that is interested in this program. Enjoy and I look forward to your feedback! Posted September 09, 2008. … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Opinion, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Video Tagged With: Career, DBA, Professional Development, SQL Server 2008 R2, Training
